South Carolina city to pay $1M over high-speed chase death

LIBERTY (AP) An upstate South Carolina city will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit involving a bystander who died when hit by a wrong-way driver pursued by police.

The Greenville News reports a municipal insurance fund will pay $750,000 to an heir of Steven Richardson and $250,000 to lawyers for the heir.

Richardson died April 6, 2017, when Liberty police were chasing Nicholas Keith Blackstock on U.S. 123. Liberty Police Chief Adam Gilstrap has said police tried to pull over Blackstock for a brake light problem. But Blackstock fled at speeds up to 90 mph (145 kph), with police giving chase. He hit Richardson, a 59-year-old Easley resident who died at the scene.

Blackstock was uninjured, later convicted of felony DUI resulting in death, and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

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